A couple of years back I managed to rupture all three of my A/C ligaments after an ill-advised sojourn over the bars. Eighteen months ago I had a modified Weaver Dunn to fix it and my new bionic shoulder has been brilliant ever since.

However, I had a big off last Saturday and landed on my shoulder again. I’m in a world of ouch right now, but the repaired shoulder appears to be holding up aside from lots of pain. It’s kind of got me worried about any inevitable crashes in the future.

Would it be worth investing in a shoulder specific armour, or some sort of brace? If so, does anyone have a recommendation?

Something that might be worth a look is one of those rugby under shirts with shoulder padding. I got one from decathlon for when I didn’t want to wear full armour but was still slightly worried about potential for doing further damage. They are pretty well padded round the shoulders and you hardly notice you are wearing one.

Drink some concrete and harden up buttercup..*or insert usual stw response
Not sure how effective armour is when you actually land on you shoulder. Might be better off with judo classes which really teach you how to fall properly

After seperating my shoulder I bought one of these EVS things:

The strapping is good and my shoulder it felt supported and definitively made the rides during my recovery easier, I found the removable hard pad that covers the shoulder a bit uncomfortable so I ended up just using it as brace with no protection. Can’t comment on if it makes a difference when crashing as I never crashed with it.

I also did a lot of research of armoured tops for using when riding DH/Jumps and ended up going for the IXS Hammer as it offers the most complete and adjustable shoulder protection of all the ones I looked at, I’m really happy with it, but probably too hot for XC riding though:

Thanks all! That’s brilliant.